Tal­iban-linked group re­leases fam­ily held cap­tive for 5 years

WASH­ING­TON » An Amer­i­can woman, her Cana­dian hus­band and their three young chil­dren have been re­leased af­ter years held cap­tive by a group that has ties to the Tal­iban and is con­sid­ered a ter­ror­ist or­ga­ni­za­tion by the United States, U.S. and Pak­istani of­fi­cials said Thurs­day.

U.S. of­fi­cials said Pak­istan se­cured the re­lease of Cait­lan Cole­man of Ste­wart­stown, Penn­syl­va­nia, and her hus­band, Cana­dian Joshua Boyle, who were ab­ducted five years ago while trav­el­ing in Afghanistan and then held by the Haqqani net­work.

Cole­man was preg­nant when she was cap­tured. The cou­ple had three chil­dren while in cap­tiv­ity, and all have been freed, U.S. of­fi­cials said.

“To­day they are free,” Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump said, cred­it­ing the U.S. gov­ern­ment with se­cur­ing the re­lease “work­ing in con­junc­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of Pak­istan.”

Trump later praised Pak­istan for its will­ing­ness to “do more to pro­vide se­cu­rity in the re­gion.”